Modular Architecture for Satellites

Paper number

IAC-07-B4.7.09

Author

Mr. Stefano Speretta, Politecnico di Torino, Italy

Coauthor

Prof. Leonardo M. Reyneri, Politecnico di Torino, Italy

Coauthor

Prof. claudio sansoè, Politecnico di Torino, Italy

Coauthor

Mr. Maurizio Tranchero, Politecnico di Torino, Italy

Coauthor

Mr. Claudio Passerone, Politecnico di Torino, Italy

Coauthor

Mr. Dante Del Corso, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

Year

2007

Abstract

Avionics for satellites is a market which is continuously growing in these years, especially thanks to the availability of low cost launch vectors. This cost reduction enabled many institutions (industries but also universities) to develop their own satellites and suddenly came the Cubesat concept: a really small satellite, built using low cost Commercial Off The Shelf components, that everybody could buy and assemble from a kit.
AraMiS (italian acronym for Modular Architecture for Satellites) is a project that wants to go beyond the Cubesat concept and create a true modular architecture in the electronic subsystem. At the moment we are concentrating on three modular systems: power supply, On-Board Computer (OBC) and radio transceiver. The power supply module is built using a basic unit able to be connected directly to a solar panel and to a rechargeable battery with a controller used for the charging process and for the acquisition of some analog signals (eg. current from solar panels, solar panel and battery temperature). This basic unit is also able to communicate with a serial link with the OBC responsible of data storage. The most interesting idea that lies behind this architecture is the possibility to use many identical units connected together and to enable and disable them at runtime (the number of units is thus not important). More boards connected means more power available for the satellite, but a failure on one board will only reduce performances and will not reduce the chances of success of the whole mission. Our goal is to build these boards with COTS components, sensitive to latch-up, and to harden the system by design. 
This concept is only a starting point since our idea could be implemented in many other sub systems: a modular OBC or Payload module architecture could lead to the development of many smaller and intercommunicating systems which could give (when all of them are successfully running) high performances and at the same time they could tolerate a great number of failures while still having enough performances to grant the success of the mission.
We are also working on a modular transceiver, able to connect the ground segment with the on-board network of intercommunicating sub-systems.

Abstract document

IAC-07-B4.7.09.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-07-B4.7.09.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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